C&S Wholesale, Walmart, Price Chopper top the week’s headlines

In this week’s recap of the Top 10 most popular Supermarket News articles, Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets complete merger ranked as the week’s top story. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will be managed locally by their respective leaders and continue to be referred to by their established brand identities, but will be owned and overseen by a new parent company, Northeast Grocery Inc. Scott Grimmett, current president and CEO of Price Chopper/Market 32, will lead the new parent company. Among other stories in this week’s gallery:

C&S Wholesale paves the way for Grand Union redux

Online grocery shopping activity projected to climb

Greer’s Markets eyes drone grocery delivery

Grocery Outlet edges over Wall Street’s estimates in Q3

In other news, nearly two weeks after announcing plans for a new high-tech distribution center in South Carolina, Walmart aims to build two more in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The project in Lancaster, Texas, includes a 1.5 million-square-foot automated fulfillment center slated to open in 2023 and a 730,000-square-foot automated grocery DC due to open in 2024, Walmart said.

Also in Walmart news, teaming up with logistics and delivery tech firm Gatik, Walmart is piloting daily delivery without a safety driver behind the wheel of a delivery route in its headquarters city of Bentonville, Ark., moving customer orders between a Walmart dark store and a Neighborhood Market in its fleet of multi-temperature autonomous box trucks.